Re: What do you want to see in the "next" wave? Message #23 Posted by Gene on 27 Oct 2003, 9:43 p.m., in response to message #22 by James M. Prange
Fix the problems new to the 49g+. Bad keyboard,
Gene: According to people with units purchased today, this has already been fixed.
lack of full support for subdirectories on the SD card,
Gene: Fixable with a ROM upgrade. I consider this trivial. :-)
communications support for other OSes,
Gene: Perhaps, but even though I am a mac person, this may not happen. After all, why hasn't Microsoft made Access for the Mac? Sometimes, those of us with Macs just deal with life.
Kermit ASCII transfer and/or source code transfers with Xmodem. IR to the printer with the range of the 48 series, communication via Serial IR. Bring back RS-232
Gene: This is rumored to be on the 48GII. Macs killed serial and third parties created USB to serial converters. Don't see why that can't happen here.
and add a host USB port as well as the device USB port. Fix problems inherited from the 49G. Unwanted mode changes and any remaining bugs/problems.
Gene: Fewer bugs remain than you might believe. The mode changes are a pain, I agree.
Market a high-speed hand-held sized printer customized to go with the calculator, as well as with previous calculators. Maybe have Martel customize the MCP8830 so that we can be sure that it works well with all HP calculators capable of sending to a printer.
Gene: Might be on the shelf. good idea!
Market a good shirt-pocket-sized scientific calculator.
Gene: The 33s is coming and, despite how it looks, those who have held the unit believe it to be very nice. Guess we'll have to wait and see.
Market a very basic RPN calculator suitable for use as a "first calculator". Just +, -, *, /, and +/-. Maybe square root and a memory register with M+, M-, MR, and MC. Get them "hooked on RPN" before they're indoctrinated into using those arcane algebraic interface calculators.
Gene: good idea too. Just a tradeoff problem I think...how many of these would sell? Unless they do it, they'll never know...but how many of these do you have to sell at $12.99 before you make enough $$ to make it worthwhile? Yes, you'd probably get some incremental sales later, I agree...but hard to tell in advance!
Good ideas! Keep them coming!
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